AthenaHQ

The Solution & Approach

AthenaHQ is an AEO/GEO platform that measures what large language models say about a brand, then works to change it. The product launched in February 2025 as a monitoring dashboard across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini with an "Action Center" for implementing recommendations. It has since pushed in both directions. Oracle, launched May 2026, surfaces incorrect or mismatching claims models make about a product and asks an operator to approve which version is true. A demo run on Canva turned up 87 contradictions in one week. The Athena Citation Engine goes the other way, scoring draft content for citation likelihood before publication.

The credibility play is proprietary data. AthenaHQ catalogs 3M+ real-world AI responses across 300K+ citation sites, ships QVEM, a query-volume estimation model that claims 95%+ accuracy against platform data across eight engines and 25 languages, and publishes the State of AI Search report. The January 2026 edition found that top organic CTR drops 34.5% when AI summaries appear and that 89% of AI-cited sources are earned media rather than branded content. ACE was validated the same way, against 1,761 published articles: top-decile content was cited 87% of the time versus 38.6% for the bottom decile, with score and citation rate correlating at r=0.90.

The category POV is that AI search is a leveler. Founder Andrew Yan runs a public case-study engine on LinkedIn arguing that smaller brands can outrank deep-pocketed content libraries, using Nuvadermis tripling share of voice against Personal Care incumbents as the example. A related finding, that LinkedIn carries domain authority rivaling top-tier media outlets for LLM citation frequency, was the first vendor-side framing of owned LinkedIn content as a Tier-A citation surface. Partnerships with Noble and Uberall extend the same thesis from measurement into placement.

Best for

Teams that want AI-search measurement plus a path to fixing what models get wrong, at a self-serve price point rather than an enterprise contract.

Pricing & trial

Public self-serve pricing starts at $95 per month billed annually or $295 monthly for 3,600 credits, 8 LLMs, and unlimited seats with RBAC, with API access, SSO, and a dedicated GEO specialist reserved for custom-priced Enterprise. No free trial listed, though the first month is 67% off. Pricing.

Agent Experience

How you build on this platform (or wire it into your own agents):

A public API reference, an OAuth-scoped MCP server shipped April 2026, a live llms.txt, and a GitHub org make it a workable build-on-top surface, with the caveat that API access sits on the Enterprise tier.

Reference customers

Grüns, Rootly, AutoRFP, Nuvadermis, Lago, Coupons.com, Checkr, Artisan, Ollie.

Case studies & customer stories

• Nuvadermis 5x'd its citation rate and tripled AI search share of voice source
• AutoRFP attributes 22.4% of inbound leads to ChatGPT, with a top article driving 1,000 citations source
• Lago drove a 50% increase in demos from AI search, going from 3% to 33% AI Overview impressions in six months source
• Grüns grew AI SEO citations 23x in two months source
• Rootly owns 52.6% of AI search share of voice in its category source

Recent moves

• 2026-05-28Published empirical validation of the Athena Citation Engine against 1,761 articles: top-decile content was cited 87% of the time versus 38.6% for the bottom decile, correlating at r=0.90. source
• 2026-05-08Published the Nuvadermis case study, framing AI search as a leveler where a smaller brand tripled share of voice against Personal Care incumbents. source
• 2026-05-04Launched Oracle, which discovers and actions incorrect or mismatching claims AI models make about a product, demoed on Canva with 87 contradictions found in a week. source
• 2026-04-22Published tracked-data findings that LinkedIn carries domain authority rivaling top-tier media outlets for LLM citation frequency, with newsletters and long-form posts inheriting that authority. source
• 2026-04-09Ranked the #1 AI search tool by Duane Forrester, top right of the quadrant on both coverage and confidence. source
• 2026-04-01Shipped an MCP server with OAuth-scoped authentication, alongside the Athena Knowledge Base for brand-consistent content production. source

Company, Financials & Funding History

Founded 2024 in San Francisco, with Andrew Yan as founder and public voice. The company was rejected from Y Combinator twice before being accepted into the Winter 2025 batch, launched publicly in February 2025, and exited stealth that June with 70+ customers and roughly 18 employees today.

Analyst placement

Ranked the #1 AI search tool by Duane Forrester in April 2026, placed top right of the quadrant on both coverage (features and utility) and confidence (credibility, documentation, case studies). source